Microsoft declares war on Palm
Microsoft, the company known to abuse their monopoly powers, launched their third manifestation of their windows CE line today. You can check out a press release here. Already, MS is taking cheap shots at Palm. They had the nerve to print a full page ad in the USA Today attacking Palm (Click the read story button to see it). The only new hardware model that is sporting CE 3 is the Hewlett Packard Jornada 545, PDABuzz has a review. Don't expect Palm to take this lying down. They're sitting on a fresh load of cash after the IPO and new devices are expected in the future from 3com, Sony, and Nokia. Palm also has a big lead in the handheld wireless sector an area where Microsoft is still lagging. UPDATE: Mike W has posted a great rebuttal to Microsoft's ad campaign.
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RE: Pocket PC It is a cheap shot
RE: Pocket PC
I bought my Palm BECAUSE it was "simple". For "simple" read light, easy to use, and 1/4 the price of the WinCE "complex" (here read bloated, difficult, expensive) hand helds. I don't think Palm has much to worry about, but maybe it will help keep them alert and responsive.
RE: Pocket PC it is a cheap shot
RE: Pocket PC
RE: Pocket PC
(Wow, and I'm the first person in response to this particular line of comment to use a name other than anonymous.)
- pix.
RE: Pocket PC vs Palm
Well, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE Micro$oft anyway! They have excellent marketing strategies, infamous track records of crushing its enemies like internet browser companies and utilizing its Windows OS market share to bundle whatever they want you to have. Meanwhile, RIM's BlackBerry and Psion's Series 7 are also attractive solutions to certain markets. So Palm MUST NOT sit there and keep thinking, "If we make it, they will come!" It is time to be innovative again.
RE: Pocket PC
RE: Pocket PC
ComputerWorld says "PocketPC is no 'Palm killer' "
On the other hand, they also say the whole battle is moot because web-enabled phones will eat both Palm's and CE's lunch. But what do they know anyway?
RE: ComputerWorld says
How about losing your bias?
RE: How about losing your bias?
Bias, of course there's Bias Microsoft is the ememy no matter what you do in this industry.
RE: How about losing your bias?
RE: How about losing your bias?
M$ is desperate. What else is new?
Besides, 70% if businesses are still dedicated to PalmOS development...
RE: M$ is desperate. What else is new?
RE: M$ is desperate. What else is new?
The businesses that ARE on CE tend to be only using Windows to start with. It's a no-brainer to write OK software on the CE device using Visual Basic or something along those lines. Basically, it's easier for the developer (though not necessarily true for the user).
Table pounding
Brad H.
RE: War on Microsoft
Palm vs. CE
As for stating that either company is a monopoly: I don't think *that* is a fair shot. Although Microsoft has been ruled a monopoly by the court (which I disagree with), they are not a monopoly in handheld devices. Neither is Palm. I think I saw I figure for around 70% of the market is owned by Palm, certainly then, there is still a lot of free market for other competitors.
In any case, why should any company be penalized for making good products? I, and many others, like the browser integration. The same goes for a lot of other products Microsoft churns out. And the same for Palm. As you read from this site, the DOJ is possibly going to target Palm as a monopoly as well. I still think the make good products and that's why they have that much of the market. The only thing the DOJ is doing is making quality products hard to come by.
But that's just my opinion.
Palm vs. CE: Waaaay out of context.
The issue of whether M$ is a Monopoly has nothing to do with the quality of their products (usually mediocre, occasionally pretty good) but rather the methods that they used to grab market share.
This is no clear-cut case of all consumers using their dollars to vote for the "Best Product at the Best Price", for if that was the case, M$ would lose bigtime. Look at it from outside the perspective of the consumer marketplace. Most of their business comes from vendors/OEM's, not you and me. And that's where they play dirty with backroom deals and strongarm tactics.
Besides, go back and read the original article about the DOJ. It says that Scarbourough asked Klein about other possible targets. Klein did NOT name Palm. Scarborough brought up Palm and AOL as possible examples. Duh!
geez calm down ppl
but lets face facts here. M$ is pushing palm to finaly ditching that stupid dragon ball CPU which is the weakest part of the hardware(OS is rock solid as far as i am concered or care. never crashed on me yet, unlike older CE's that crash in 5 mins of me using them.) they are now suposedly going strong arm. why? cuz of PPC. if anything M$ finaly sealed the fait of there doomed CE platform altogether. Heck even the WEBTV devices are rumered to be running a unix type OS insted of there CE OS like M$ would want you to belive(maily cuz the programers gave up hope trying to get windows to work @ all so they went unix, hence it kinda works)
as for these adds, heck i love them i'll even go as far as to ask M$ to bring em all on. It would help the DOJ see how M$ intimidates others into there favor. then split them up, and the market will obviosly kill the apps section(could you possibly see anyone actulay buy'n office2k? that thing is the worst and most bloated pice of $#!+ i've ever seen in my years of computing)
then M$ can prob get back to making half decent OS's like they did with DOS. IT may not have been pretty but dang it, you never got a freaking blue screen! :P
and don't start wtih the win2k stuff. i've been running win2k since the first beta's, and now i'm on the final and it's still crashing. you want an OS go lynix. I've got a 486 linyx server that just refuses to die no matter how hard we even try to kill it! heck sometimes for fun the guyz here just try to kill it. it's been up for 4 yearS? 5 years shoot, i can't even remember it's been up for that long without rebooting even ONCE!
when you or anyone else can show me a OS that takes sheer punishment to the point it just barly chugs along without crashing give me a call. i'll stick to linyx and my VMS system(BTW the VMS has been online and running for 10 years BEAT THAT NT/win2k!)
Palm's are good for 1 thing...
To sum this up....Palm Sucks and is an over-rated piece of crap. WinCE kicks ass. We love you Mr. Gates. Well not really, your software is just sweet
RE: Palm's are good for 1 thing...
sucker people like this d00d with fancy colors and yet-still closed-source bloatware.
And what is this about slow processors? ;) plams are just as fast as PPC or faster scince
M$ puts all that extra crap in their OS. I bet your lovn' you battery life eh? hehe
snarf
RE: Palm's are good for 1 thing...
RE: Palm's are good for 1 thing...
RE: Palm's are good for 1 thing...
The thing is that when you buyed a palm in 1996, and you haven't updated it, it may be a little old, but it is still ok. When you buy a desktop computer/laptop, in 6 months, the damned thing is as old as a fossil.
The beauty of a market not dominated by microsoft is that your hardware won't become old in 6 months.
If microsoft gets a bigger marketshare, or if palm feels the heat, all of the palm computers will also become old every 6 months, and in a few years, you'll hear about palms/pocket pc's with pentium 6 processors :(
OH! But I forgot to say they will crash every 6 minutes, and that the "reset" button will be used as often as the power button.
Don't buy microsoft
RE: Palm's are good for 1 thing...
1. People with excess cash usually go with the Pocket PC if it is their first PDA.
2. The persons who purchase Palm OS devices usually become productive in the first two weeks.
3. The persons who purchase Pocket PC devices usually spend two to four months becoming familiar with their devices.
4. Existing Palm OS users will upgrade for either memory, form factor, or color, but usually move to another Palm OS device instead of switching platforms.
5. The Pocket PC users have been more vocal in talking about their devices, but spend very little time actually doing work on their devices compared to the Palm OS users (something for employers to consider).
6. Although Pocket PC users will talk about having the "real" Excel and Word, they never mention what their upgrade path would be if they need functions like cell locking, charting, or advanced color support like MiniCalc for the Palm.
7. If a Palm OS user is beaming info to a Pocket PC, and it does not work, everyone in the room usually thinks there is something wrong with the Palm.
8. If anything touching the topic of battery life is mentioned (hey Fred, the batteries in my IIIxe only lasted 5 weeks last time, is there something wrong?), then Pocket PC users will suddenly look busy doing something else.
In retrospect, I guess we were all expecting the Pocket PC to be a smash, and I guess it has been in it's own little circles. It is a much better machine for playing music (I would not even bother on most Palms... my ears would be insulted), and the multi media capabilities are nice. But therein lies the difference. The strong point of Pocket PC is it's entertainment value, and these aspects can make Palm OS devices appear boring if you are not aware of the multi media content or high end games for Palms. The strong point of Palm OS devices is that they were built for usability. Take a look again at the learning curve mentioned above. It was rather amusing at a recent business meeting when the CEO asked me for my number. I beamed it to his Palm, and we were back to other things in the usual five seconds. Then a friend asked me to beam it to his Pocket PC, which took five minutes of poking around on his end while I waited patiently. One Palm OS device is usually equal in productivity to three Pocket PC's when it comes down to the actual work accomplished.
Why has the Pocket PC not devoured everything else in sight despite the advanced hardware? The reason is simple; Microsoft does not know one cruicial factor... "The purpose of a Personal Digital Assistant is to make life easier, not more complicated and difficult".
Paul Campbell
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Pocket PC
And what does the MS monopoly in OSs on Intel hardware have to do with anything ? If anyone has a PDA monopoly its Palm. You should be glad there is competition, to keep Palm on its toes.